NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Crews began to tear down the Former Trail West store on lower Broadway Sunday night.
Video of the area showed heavy equipment surrounding the former Trail West store at the corner of Broadway and 3rd Avenue as crews worked on the building.
Many preservationists were outraged to hear the news, Monday.
One former Metro Council member said it would never happen again, because the Trail West building was the only one not covered by a historic protection plan downtown.
Former Metro Council member Emily Evans said the loophole dated back to when the downtown historic overlay was originally created in 2007.
The overlay required that all historic buildings downtown are to be preserved and renovated.
Trail West was left out because it was supposed to become a Westin Hotel.
That never happened, but plans were made to redevelop it into a Harry O's steakhouse.
"As they started to move forward and execute that plan they found what we were afraid they would find," Evans said. "And some of the professionals involved knew that we would find: the building was in really really tough shape."
Evans said the building was too unstable for workers to safely renovate it.
Evans said now that Trail West is gone, all the other historic buildings are protected.
Earlier this year it was announced that Harry O's Steakhouse would be moving into that location.
The steakhouse will be on the first floor. There will be two other floors where there will be food, bars, and music. The developers also planned to develop the rooftop of the building.
In June, developers said they planned to open in March 2016.
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